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Sunday, 4 May 2014

BCCC battle heads to Ebbw Vale for round 2

Crews in the Britpart MSA British Cross Country Championship (BCCC) will head to Hafod-Y-Dafal near Ebbw Vale next weekend for the second round of this year’s series. The site is a new one for the BCCC and the course is expected to be around six miles of moorland tracks.Martin Cox heads the championship table on 86 points after taking his first BCCC win in the opening round at Pikes Peak. Unlike his main rivals, Cox had a trouble-free event and he’s hoping for another good run at Hafod-Y-Dafal. Cox commented: “The car is all ready to go, there was nothing needed fixing after Pikes Peak, all we’ve done is give it a good clean. Bring on the next round!” Paul Myers finished in second place in round one and has 81 points. Myers faces a race against time to be ready for round two. He rolled his car over the flying finish line and a post-event inspection revealed that more damage had been sustained than initially thought.Andrew West is in third place on 75 points, a better result than he was expecting after suffering serious cooling issues at Pikes Peak with his Milner R5, including a burst header tank. Crews hoping for better fortunes at round two include Andy Powell who had a troublesome opening day at round one which included breaking a shaft on one run and a loose brake pipe on another. Powell will once again have Phil Ibbotson in the navigator’s seat. Paul Harris will return in his GSR Maxilight following a head gasket failure. “We’ve removed the engine and put another in,” said Harris. “Hopefully we can get a good result at round two, I’m looking forward to racing at a new venue.”Ian Bartlett was another driver who retired at Pikes Peak. His Tomcat has had the damaged oil pipe fixed that caused the retirement and work has been done to try and prevent the problem occurring again. Bartlett is also busy getting his usual 3M 206 ready for a return to competition.In the Trophy category Alan Thomas is looking for another win in his Warrior Gemini while in the Freelander Challenge the Race2Recovery team presently lead the class ahead of championship newcomer Ian Linford.The event will start at 10am on Saturday morning with a full day of action. Day two will start at 9am with the finish scheduled for early afternoon. Spectator information is available on www.marches4x4.com.